RASC News Agency: A former U.S. intelligence officer has disclosed that the United States pays $10 million each month to cover the administrative expenses of the Taliban’s political office in Qatar. Sarah Adams, a former operative with the CIA, revealed this financial arrangement, emphasizing that the payments are separate from the $87 million flown weekly to Kabul. In a tweet, Adams elaborated that since the Taliban’s ascension to power, the U.S. has delivered over $40 million per week under the guise of humanitarian aid, depositing the funds directly into Afghanistan’s central bank.
Despite the Taliban’s repeated assertions of independence and their proclaimed triumph over the United States, many analysts contend that the group operates as a pliant tool of Washington arguably even more so than former Afghanistani leaders Hamid Karzai and Ashraf Ghani. Following the signing of the U.S.-Taliban agreement, the group was facilitated into Afghanistan with American backing. Over the last three years, the Taliban have consistently received both financial and political support from the U.S. government. Reports suggest that American advisors in Qatar provide the Taliban with political and economic blueprints, which are subsequently implemented in Afghanistan through the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA). This strategy is perceived as an effort to grant the Taliban a veneer of popular legitimacy.
Nevertheless, the group continues to brand itself as the vanguard of Islamic principles, boldly asserting that it has vanquished the United States. Experts, however, view the Taliban as a calculated geopolitical project devised by the United States to serve strategic objectives in Afghanistan and the region. These experts warn that, in the not-so-distant future, the Taliban could evolve into a destabilizing force, posing significant threats to regional peace and security.